


The Eye of the Storm

by Erisette



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical language, Gen, Spoilers to ep 80, Team as Family, let them rest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:49:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9251021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erisette/pseuds/Erisette
Summary: The mansion was full--Pike hadn't known the mansion could BE full. (a moment to breathe in the aftermath of ep 80)





	

In the aftermath of the hard-fought battle with Thordak and the epic clusterfuck that was the fight with Raishan, Vox Machina and their friends had emerged dazed and staggering into the open to be greeted with Jarret's relieved, scarred face. "My friends, I see that you took my advice and did not die."

" _Wellllll_..." Scanlan began, and Pike grabbed his wrist and squeezed as hard as she could without breaking it.

"Don't," she said lowly, and he obediently fell silent.

There was still fighting going on throughout the city, but much more sporadic than before: the fall of the Cinder King had disheartened his forces, and the well-led and well-prepared allied army seemed to be persevering. The airship, on seeing them emerge from the lair, waggled a salute with its weapons and moved off to start a circle of the city. There was a long, heavy pause, dense with dismay, in the group. Pike slid her hand down from Scanlan's wrist to his hand, and his long fingers squeezed hers hard enough that she felt it through her gauntlets. "Let's get the fuck away from this place," Vax said, and they turned as one back to the gates of the Cloudtop.

On emerging through the twisted gates, they were met with the sight of a smoldering giant's corpse, surrounded by three fire elementals. Grog and Kima charged them with matching bellows, and the creatures--which seemed very small indeed after the battle with ancient dragons--were struck down in short order. Vex gave out a terrible cry as she tore herself away from her brother's side and crouched down in the middle of the courtyard. Her sharp eyes had picked out what none of the rest of them had noticed: a rough broken piece of red horn...part of one of Zahra's horns. "She's not here, though," she said, through her tears, as she cradled the horn like it was one of her gems. "That's a good sign, right? That they're not here?"

"She and Kashaw are clever," Percy said immediately, coming up behind her and helping draw her to her feet. "They wouldn't have fought a hopeless battle if there was any chance they could accomplish the same objective by drawing the enemies away and then fleeing."

"I can try and find them," Grog said gruffly, the red already fading from his eyes as he planted himself, a steady reliable bulwark, at Pike's back. "I'm doing fine. Didn't even get knocked out. Shouldn't be too hard, just follow the trail of destruction--Zahra can fuck shit _up_ , no way they're dead."

"I'll help as well," Percy said, and brushed Vex's cheek with the back of his fingers, so tenderly that Pike had to swallow and look away.

"I'll make the mansion," Scanlan said, his voice a little hoarse but as strong and steady as ever. "I can put it up right here--there's not gonna be a better place, I wouldn't think, and then we can all rest. Sarenrae knows we need it." His hand tightened compulsively around Pike's.

"I'm coming too," Kima said bluntly. Her dark brows furrowed and she added in a grumble: "I didn't even hardly get to fucking hit ANYTHING."

The three of them set off, and without further ado, Scanlan bent to the familiar task of laying out the components for the mansion spell. When the faintly-shimmering portal sprang into being, he released Pike's hand with one last squeeze and turned to Vex with a smile that was only a little dimmer than usual. "You and me first, Vexiepoo. Privilege of the recently-dead." Vax froze so suddenly and completely that Shaun grabbed his elbows, probably fearing a faint, and Pike realized with dread that he had been unconscious during the whole business of her reviving Vex and Scanlan both.

"As the cleric I say everyone who almost died needs to go in the magic mansion straight away," she said, with determined good cheer, and pushed Scanlan towards the door while pulling Vex with her other arm. "A good long sleep and something to eat will do us all the good in the world."

"I would not object to some refreshment," Jarret's voice was saying as the three of them entered the portal, and Pike let out a breath of relief as the familiar grandiose foyer came into view.

"I think I could sleep for a hundred years," she said passionately, surrendering her mace and shield to the ethereal servants with relief.

"A bad idea," Scanlan said. "The tall people would all be old and decrepit when you woke up."

" _You're_ old and decrepit," she shot back, flustered, and moved away from the door as their other friends began pouring through.

"Pickle...Pike..." Vax's voice was soft and shaking as he knelt beside her and clasped her hands in his as he looked into her eyes. "You brought back my sister? And Scanlan as well?"

"Oh, Vax," she said, flinging her arms around his neck and patting helplessly at his back. His magical armor was unharmed but the rest of his gear was scorched and charred in places. "It wasn't anything any one of you wouldn't do if you could. And it wasn't even me, really, it was Sarenrae. Oh!" She pulled back, and looked in his face. "Is your Lady upset? Do the followers of the Raven Queen frown on resurrection? I could kind of understand that, but if she is mad about this she and I are gonna have _words_."

He laughed, looking surprised at himself, and tugged at her earlobe. "We just got done with one giant fucking mess, Pickle, let's not pick a fight with a _God_ now. She doesn't..." he struggled with his words for a moment, before finishing: "You can't try and run from your natural end, but it wasn't their time--clearly, or they wouldn't have been able to come back. No, my Lady and I have some issues but this isn't one of them."

"Well, good." She hugged him one more time and said quietly in his ear, "I don't really want to fight a God anyway."

"We all came out in more or less one piece." Shaun's resonant voice was rougher than usual, lacking it's usual boisterousness, but as he smiled down at them he winked at Pike and looked more or less like himself. "Seeing as we just dueled two, ah, 'giant ancient fuck-off death dragons', I'd say we're doing pretty good."

"That's the spirit, Gilmore," Scanlan said brightly. "And it's only about 79% entirely thanks to Pikey."

"Oh, Scanlan," she said.

They were interrupted by Jarret, who stepped through the door of the mansion and spoke while staring around the entrance in amazement: "Ah, I am sorry to intrude, but you said this is a mansion, yes? Can it hold many people? There are sure to be many injured in the army who could use a safe place to rest, and I am already starting to see stragglers."

"Oh! Yes, in theory," Scanlan said. "At least a hundred, anyway. It might..." he trailed off, frowning around the entryway, before dragging himself back to his feet. "I'm sorry to say this, fellows, but I think we need to duck back outside for a minute."

"Do you need--ahhh, I see," Gilmore said with a look of sudden understanding, and held out his hands to Pike and Vax. "Up you get, friends, it'll make this a lot easier on Scanlan if he doesn't have to adjust the whole thing around us."

"What do you mean, 'around us'?" Pike asked, even as she obediently went back out.

"You'll see," Scanlan said, and closed his eyes with a look of concentration. They all watched as his brow furrowed deeper for a minute, before relaxing as he suddenly swayed like he was about to fall over.

"Scanlan!" Keyleth said, breathless, and swept him up in her arms. There were terrible burns along her limbs that cracked and oozed as she did it, but she didn't seem to notice. For his part, Scanlan accepted being picked up with good grace, patting her on her shoulder.

"That should do it. You all should go ahead and go inside: I need to stay out here so I can designate who's allowed in."

"Scanlan, you died like ten minutes ago," Pike said firmly, and frowned up at him. "You of all people should be resting."

"I'm fine, don't sorry about me," he said, very gently, and made shooing motions at them. "Go on, get in before the rush starts. Kiki?"

"I'll stay here with you," she said, sniffling a little, and held him tighter with a whispered Healing Word. The spell was weak, dredged up from a well of magic nearly drained, but his color improved a little and he smiled a sunny sweet smile at her and returned the favor.

"Well, alright, then," Vex said. "But you both let us know if you need anything, okay? Promise!"

"Cross my heart," Scanlan said stoutly.

They straggled back inside, one by one stopping to stare around as the vastly altered interior came into view. The grand foyer was gone, replaced by a much smaller and more utilitarian entryway, round, with doors spaced around the periphery like sun's rays. An ethereal servant was posted at each door, and another floated up to them as they stopped and said, "Will sirs and madams come this way? Chambers have been prepared."

"Let's wait for the others," Vax said. So they did.

Within the next 10 minutes injured soldiers and civilians began to trickle through the entrance. Most of them gave some sort of acknowledgement to the members of Vox Machina, seated in exhausted patience against the wall beside the door, before following the attendants who drifted up to take them to whatever spaces Scanlan had prepared. Pike found herself starting to drift off and jerked awake, blinking furiously. The twins were listing against each other, half-asleep, and Gilmore seated against the wall with his feet folded tailor-style was stiller than she'd seen him since he recovered from his first disastrous encounter with Thordak. For her own part, Pike felt exhausted down to her bones, but at the same time filled with a sickly nervous energy, knowing Scanlan and Keyleth were still outside working, and Percy and Grog and Kima were who knew where looking for poor Kash and Zahra.

She had just about made up her mind to go out and insist they come in and rest--he couldn't invite anyone in if he was passed out, now could he?--when they came in of their own volition. Keyleth was still carrying Scanlan on her hip and Pike marveled, not for the first time, at how he could let her do that without issue. Pike herself liked riding on Grog's back and shoulders, and didn't mind him carrying her at all, but then Grog was so huge that he made everyone look small in comparison. Pike didn't much like feeling small, and Scanlan was even shorter and slighter than she was. But then she didn't think Scanlan had ever been anything less than astronomically confident, so maybe it didn't make any kind of impression on him to be carried like a child. "You're still here? Come on, guys, let's go."

"But what about designating guests?" Pike blurted, and then was mad at herself: hadn't she JUST been thinking that it was time they came inside?

"Dale showed up, so I designated him as designator. He knows the army better than me, anyway, so he probably knows enough to keep out the riff-raff."

"Dale?" the twins chorused.

"You know, Kash's friend Dale," Keyleth said, and swallowed. "Oh, gods, I hope Kash is--" her voice cut off in a squeak as her arms tightened around Scanlan, and she suddenly looked more like a child holding a teddy bear than an adult holding a child.

"And Percy and Grog and Kima?" Vex asked, fidgeting with the ends of her braid.

"They know to let them in, and the servants will know where to direct them," Scanlan told her, in his softest voice. "Now, come on--this will do us all some good."

Where he directed them was a door that Pike hadn't realized no soldiers were being funneled through: this one led to a short passage that then connected to a familiar but greatly-altered chamber. It was the hot springs, or a part of them: there was one rather small hot bath, separated by a low wall from a thickly-carpeted floor scattered with blankets and cushions. "Oh, thank the gods," Vex said, and left a trail of hastily-shed equipment on her way to the bath, sliding in completely nude as Vax cast a long-suffering look at the ceiling. The others followed suit more slowly, helping each other out of armor where applicable.

"Come on, Shaun," Pike heard Vax say as she bent to work loose a tie on Scanlan's bracers that refused to surrender easily. "We're all family here, no need to be shy."

"Well _that's_ something I've never been accused of before," Shaun answered, amused, and evidently joined them in stripping from his beautiful, much-abused clothes. He did leave his underthings on, though, as did Vax and Keyleth: Pike shed everything with a huge sigh of relief, and so did Scanlan. Ghostly servants unobtrusively swept up all the equipment, taking it away to be cleaned and repaired, and the six of them melted into the hot spring. The sounds they made as the water encased their battered bodies were, to a person, essentially orgasmic. Scanlan kept his mouth shut with a heroic effort, but Pike could see what he was thinking and rolled her eyes at him as hard as she could.

As tempting as it was just to stay there, Pike bullied them out after only about half an hour, chivying them into the nightshirts left by the servants and then to bed. She herself sat on top of the low dividing wall, hands pressed together, and for almost another hour sat in prayer. When she opened her eyes the others all seemed to be asleep. The half-elves and Gilmore were all curled together in a big, messy pile of blankets, while Scanlan was sleeping sprawled out a short distance from them. Pike measured the distance with her eyes and determined it was just the right sized space for a goliath to fit, and felt a rush of aching love for them all. She carefully padded over--much more stealthy without her armor!--and sat down on Scanlan's opposite side, leaving the Grog-size gap. "Scanlan?" she whispered. "Are you awake?"

"Of course, honey," he said sleepily, and cracked one eye open to meet hers, near-boneless with exhaustion.

"I'm..." she trailed off, and tugged at her damp hair. Scanlan sat up, rubbing at his eyes, and gestured for her to turn around so he could try to comb some order into her hair with his fingers.

"Your poor hair," he mourned.

"It was for Vex," she said simply, and he hummed.

"A worthy cause then," he said, and fell silent. The rhythmic motions of his combing started to put her to sleep, and she felt her head nod each time he hit a knot and tugged a little too hard. "Vax can probably even it up some," he said as he began to weave what was left into a braid. "Give you some bangs like mine, maybe."

"I think I might just have him shave that whole side off," she said thoughtfully. "Remember Worra? In Westruun? She looked totally fierce."

"You already look fierce! But that would be pretty cool." He finished off the braid and patted it carefully.

"Right?" she said, and turned to lie down facing him. He did the same, and for a minute they just lay with their faces inched from each other. "I'm sorry," she said again with some effort. "For breaking my promise."

"Ah," he said, and rubbed his thumb against his lower lip. "That wasn't...I made a promise too."

"To Kaylie," she said helplessly. "So did I. And when you...I thought...I just couldn't."

"Pike," he began, and stopped. He reached out cautiously for her hands, and she reached back. "Being dead is for the dogs," he finally said. "Life can be pretty shitty sometimes, but at least it's never boring."

"Some of us are trying to sleep, here," Vex's groggy voice contributed from the middle of the cuddle pile. "You can flirt later."

"I'm not flirting," Scanlan assured Pike. She rolled her eyes at him and smiled.

"I kinda miss your flirting," she admitted, and bent forward to kiss him on the cheek. "You can do it any time you like."

"Oh, _really_?"

"Oh, gods, not when we're trying to sleep, please," said Vax this time, and the gnomes shared a look of fond amusement before Pike pulled Scanlan towards her, as he twisted so his back was pressed against her front.

"This way you won't have to wake up to the Cube," he said, already half-asleep again.

"You like being the little spoon. You can admit it," Pike teased, almost asleep herself; and even through her worry for the members of her family who were not present she managed to drift off to a deep and restful sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> dis gon be Jossed in like 4 days but i rewatched the ep and was in a frenzy of anxiety so i wrote this in like three hours, no beta, no nothin, just my intense desire for my babies to get a rest.


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